RNC PROTESTS UPDATE
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There is a lot of info out about this, please don't stop your reading here.

This derives from a letter I wrote to my sister and I realized I hadn't posted

anything about it. So I revised it a little for posting here.

I'm struggling uphill to raise awareness
about what happened at the RNC protests in St Paul. 8 organizers
(protest/rally logistics coordinators) are being charged with terrorism.
Journalists and medics that were arrested are being charged with felony
rioting or felony inciting a riot, some of those include Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman, an AP photographer, an EMT, and our own Portland Indymedia
reporters Wendy and Alex, as well as Portland's Black Cross Health
Collective(made up of naturopaths, EMTs, ER doctors/nurses, physicians,
etc). The police were extremely brutal as always, but did little, if
anything, to cover it up this time. The Republican National Convention made an agreement that they
would cover all police brutality lawsuit expenses. The police publicly
released documents that showed they intended to target support staff for
the protests. They listed items such as video cameras, ipods, xbox(or
other game systems), computers, cell phones, signs, printing supplies, and
other media related equipment as contraband because they "could be used to
harm an officer". A judge signed these documents. They started the raids
and confiscation a week before the protests even started. The Twin Cities
Indymedia center had the national guard positioned outside, plain as day,
with live-ammo rifles and cameras pointing 24/7. Those of us in
Portland(and other IMCs) had to do radio coverage and other
roles that we could remotely, because of confiscations, arrests of media
volunteers, and the lack of safety in St Paul. Alex, a Portland Indymedia
volunteer, and Glass Bead Media are still there just trying to make a
documentary and are still targeted with raids, intense surveillance, and
brutality. In some of the raids(before the protests started) the police
could not obtain a warrant so they destroyed the car(and towed it away)
and property in front of the people. In one case they busted down the door
and then got a warrant based on the fact that the broken door was now a
fire code violation. The door was bolted shut and people not allowed to re
enter until the door was fixed. All raids were at live-ammo gun point.
Elderly, disabled, and children were not spared violence.
Torture was used in the jails. Not even to gather info but just to see people suffer. At
least one young person was gagged, a bag placed over his head, beaten to
semi-consciousness, his feet bent backwards at the ankles, and his jaw
slowly separated by the use of pain compliance pressure points. They had
to take him to the hospital because he could not maintain consciousness or
stop vomiting in his gag bag(which they refused to remove). In other cases
police simulated anal rape by very forcefully jabbing batons into peoples'
butt holes. A developmentally disabled man had his shoulder dislocated and
he was beaten with batons until he couldn't breath for screaming from the
pain. Then when they released him they drove him far outside of town and
dropped him off. Others were sprayed and beaten repeatedly for asking for
things like food, toilet paper, tampons, critical medications. One
severely anemic woman almost died in custody because they denied her iron
supplements and food. A hemophiliac with a large wound(who luckily was
celled with an arrested EMT) from less lethal weapons was denied his
medication for 36 hours, he would have bled to death if not for his cell mate. My friend(indy reporter) was forced to
bleed(period) all over herself for over 24 hrs. Also her arm was fractured
in a pain compliance hold. Amnesty International issued a statement that
they demand an impartial investigation into the atrocities committed in St
Paul. It's usually gotta be pretty bad to get their attention. Free Press
International gathered 60,000 signatures in just a few hours for a
petition to stop the atrocities(I don't know what it's up to now). The
media blackout of these events has been quite thorough. One corporate
media(Fox news) photographer was so outraged he quit his job and has now
joined Indymedia. Even the more liberal outlets are silent. Even though
Indymedia.org receives almost as many hits as cnn.com, Indymedia articles
are not showing up in Google searches or are buried 30 or more pages in
past obscure sites with low relevance. Also Youtube programs that have
large followings(several of which have no activist affiliations) are
alleging that their scoring is being tampered with to keep their RNC
protest related footage off the front pages. A group of people even did
large amounts of gutsy property destruction which usually causes a media
feeding frenzy and gives the protests something newsworthy. But even that
was blacked out beyond the local Minnesota news. Not sure exactly what's
pulling the strings and causing this coordinated black out. But if media
is quietly being so criminalized, it's really dangerous right now for
media activists. 2 Portland Indymedia reporters are "under investigation" which is
legal code for, we can raid you and do whatever we want to you or your
affiliates in the name of investigating you. Portland has a long history
of providing a lot of media equipment and personnel support to mass
mobilizations. People also use Portland Indymedia to shed a lot of light on things the government would
rather didn't reach so many people. Portland Indymedia(last I checked) is the 2nd or 3rd most popular site
in the international Indymedia network. So the PDX IMC profile is high. Maybe that
visibility will spare Portland IMCistas, maybe it won't.
That about sums it up, but there's so much more than what I listed here. There are many benefits coming up to support the Portland people facing severe charges and to cover the massive expenses due to loss of equipment and hyper-inflated bail costs. Please don't let this disappear into obscurity. People have gone through hell to give voice to the people!
For more info: http://portland.indymedia.org http://tc.indymedia.org http://www.indybay.org

To listen to the radio archives:
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/static/pdxradio.shtml

Scroll down to:

"SPECIAL PROGRAMS AND STUDIO RECORDINGS

Event Coverage
* Show from 09-04-2008 - RNC coverage 9-4-08 Bombs in the street oh my god
* Show from 09-03-2008 -
* Show from 09-02-2008 - 9/2/08 RNC coverage"